


Except...

by aidail



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Canon Fix-It, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:55:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22159714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aidail/pseuds/aidail
Summary: The end scene we deserved (that Disney was too much of a coward to give us). Based off the original Leia/Han "He's my brother" scene. MAJOR SPOILERS for the Rise of Skywalker.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 9
Kudos: 316





	Except...

The thing they don’t tell you about a successful rebellion is what comes after. It took three days for the partying to die down, for people to stop being grateful for simply being alive, and to start asking what now? 

What now indeed? 

Poe didn’t have the answers. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. A week ago, he’d had a vague notion that after the war, after the First Order was put down, he would go back to his old life, let others more suitable for the job would take over. If he was being honest, a week ago, he hadn’t really thought he’d survive the war, let alone win it. But here they were. And everyone was looking at him to tell them what to do. 

He was a great pilot, a shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy. As Leia had once said, he was good at jumping in an X-Wing and blowing stuff up. Leading a fight he could do, hell sometimes he even started them. But the galaxy didn’t need a fighter anymore. The fight was over. What it needed now was a stable system of government, a new senate, communications, relief, aid, all the things the First Order had taken away when they destroyed the New Republic. 

Poe was exhausted just thinking about it. He’d always admired Leia, she was his hero, his idol, his guiding star. She was everything he’d thought was good in the world. Now he admired her even more. He hadn’t thought that was possible, but it was true. She’d done this before. She’d taken the ruins of a galaxy and put it back together. And the Empire had been far more insidious than the First Order. How had she done it? How was he going to do it? 

Well he knew the answer to that one. With help. Except…..

“Rey’s leaving.” Finn had told him earlier that night. 

Poe knew what that meant. Finn was leaving too. Poe couldn’t even be mad about it. They were heroes, both of them. Together they’d saved the Galaxy. They deserved to be happy. So why wasn’t he happy about it? 

Well he knew the answer to that one, but he wasn’t going there. 

It was the last night of celebrations. There was work to do, and as ill-equipped as Poe felt to do it, he knew they needed to get started. Too many trigger-happy rebels with no cause would start looking for a fight. He would know. But they had once last night to celebrate, once last night to be heroes, before the real work of piecing the galaxy back together began. 

He wandered aimlessly through the festivities. He waved at Rose across the fire where she was chatting happily with one of the newcomers. Most of their impromptu fleet had gone back to wherever Lando had got them from but some had stayed. If Poe was any judge, he thought this particular newcomer had a good reason to stick around. 

He’d been jealous of Rose for a hot second a while back, but that hadn’t lasted long. Only about as long as Finn’s concern. It quickly became obvious to all of them, Rose included, that it would take more than literally throwing herself in harms way to make Finn see her as anything more than a friend. She’d taken it well, in his opinion, and they’d been good buddies since. He was happy she seemed to have found someone who was interested in one of the resistance’s most talented. 

He continued walking, bypassing a few of the rowdier revellers. He wasn’t really in the mood. The high he’d been riding since their victory had ebbed and he was left drained. The enormity of what they’d achieved was sinking in, along with the realisation of how much more they had to do, and what they’d lost. 

There was no body to bury. Leia had simply disappeared. They’d had to settle for a wake, and Poe hadn’t bothered hiding his tears. No one did. Their Princess was gone, and with her something vital had been lost. The stars seemed just a little dimmer without her around. 

There was no body for Kylo Ren either; or Ben Solo as Rey had been insisting he should be known. Fat chance of that. No matter what kind of heroics she may have witnessed, Kylo Ren had still hunted him, tortured him and half the galaxy in his pursuit of power. Rey might be ready to forgive him, but Poe was not. He would stay Kylo Ren, at least for now. 

For good or bad though, the Skywalkers were gone. The Sith too, if he’d understood Rey right. There were no more heroes, and no more villains either. No more gods among men. Just ordinary guys like Poe left to clean up the mess they’d made. 

Poe took a long swig of his drink, felt it burn through his veins. What a mess. He envied Rey. She’d lived up to her cosmic destiny. She was done. She was leaving tomorrow, leaving the mess behind and sure she deserved it. He just wished he could go too. Jump in the cockpit and fly away from his problems. It’d always worked out in the past. But not this time. Leia had trusted him to lead the rebels, and that meant seeing this through. Even if he had to do that alone. 

He settled back against a tree and looked up. Despite the firelight he could still see the stars peeking between the canopy. One day, he promised himself, one day he’d be free to set off again. He was born to fly; he wouldn’t be stuck on the ground forever. 

He was still star gazing when he felt a familiar weight settle beside him and the bottle unceremoniously pulled out of his hand. 

“What’re you doing over here moping?” Finn asked, taking a swig, because of course it was Finn. 

“What makes you think I’m moping?” 

“Ah have you seen you? This is textbook moping.” 

Poe shrugged and snatched his drink back, taking a long sip.  
“Shouldn’t you be packing?” Poe asked instead of replying. 

“Packing for what?” Finn asked, confused. 

“For your little trip tomorrow. Where are you headed anyway?” Poe was working on keeping his tone friendly, but even he could tell it was slipping closer and closer into a growl. 

“What’re you talking about?” Finn asked, really confused this time. 

Poe was annoyed now. Finn was way too smart to be playing dumb. 

“You said Rey was leaving tomorrow.” He snapped. 

“Yeah I said Rey was leaving. Not me.” Finn said still confused.

“You’re not?” Poe asked, turning to look at him for the first time.  
“Of course not,” Finn said, “You need me here. Nobody knows the First Order better than me. There’s still a lot of work to do.” 

Poe slumped a little. Of course, that made sense. Finn was loyal, he’d stay to see this through. He slapped his shoulder in what he hoped was a friendly way.  
“Well good to know you’re not abandoning us yet.” Poe joked with a forced grin, wincing internally at how raw the word abandoned felt.  
“Why would you think I was leaving anyway?” Finn asked intently, facing Poe properly now. 

Poe shifted uncomfortably, but you didn’t become the best pilot in the alliance without being a little reckless, so…

“You love her.” 

He didn’t make it a question. 

“Well yeah, of course.” Finn replied, visibly uncomfortable. 

Poe didn’t know why, he’d been kind of hoping for a denial. So he smirked and laughed to cover the sting. 

“Well don’t let us hold you back. You earned a break. Go with Rey, go have a holiday, get married or whatever it is Jedi do-“

“What?” Poe exclaimed. 

“Well I just mean-“

“It’s not like that.” Finn interrupted. 

“It’s not?” Poe said confused. It wasn’t quite hope he was feeling, but it somewhere in that ballpark. That or the Devonian Whiskey was giving him indigestion. 

“No!” Finn exclaimed again, looking faintly disgusted, “I mean yeah, I love her, but Rey is like my sister.”

Poe was pretty sure he’d heard wrong. 

“She’s the first real friend I ever had.” Finn added softly. 

“Wait so, you’re not in love with her?” Poe asked, just to confirm. 

Finn rolled his eyes at Poe. Then he did something Poe wasn’t expecting. He reached out and yanked Poe in by his jacket. Poe’s yelp was smothered as Finn kissed him and oh, hey this was good. Poe wrapped an arm around his shoulders pulling him closer. This was very good. Except…

“I thought I was your first friend?” Poe drew back just far enough to ask, indignant, but not really minding. Finn rolled his eyes.  
“You call this friends?” Finn asked, drawing him back in. Poe didn't answer. 

Looks like he wasn’t going to have to rebuild the galaxy on his own after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I've heard that Oscar Isaac said he played Poe as being in love with Finn and by god in that last movie, he sure did. So I thought this scene needed to exist, as a nice parallel with Return of the Jedi.


End file.
